June 05, 2006

Should the celebrity commencement speaker be paid? The University of Oklahoma paid Katie Couric $115,000 for her commencement address. The university’s president insisted that the funds for the fee had been raised privately. When Miss Couric announced that she was donating her fee to her alma mater, the University of Virginia, those supporters of the University of Oklahoma may have had second thoughts.

May 24, 2006

Given all the noise about the Da Vinci Code, It seems fun to re-post this link to Hart Seeley's story. enjoy.

"In Dan Brown's best-selling thriller, "The Da Vinci Code," the fearless and cerebral Harvard professor Robert Langdon uses his knowledge of ancient religious symbols in a quest for the Holy Grail. His search is often interrupted by questions from his trusted partner, the intrepid and beautiful French cryptologist Sophie Neveu. In his next book, maybe Mr. Brown will take on a real conspiracy — involving an ancient sporting rivalry that resumes tonight.

Robert, who are these people chanting, "YANK! KISS! HUG!"?

Red Sox Nation, Sophie. A radical cult known for intense rites of self-degradation. Stay low, Sophie. It's their vernal resurrection. They're wearing the "Scarlet B," the mark of having betrayed the immortal Babe."

May 12, 2006

From the moment of my birth, light [that I could have influenced] has been expanding around the Earth and light [which could influence me, from an increasing distance of origin] reaching it -- this ever-growing sphere of potential causality is my light cone. Today... My light cone contains 37 stars. Chi-1 Orionis will be reached in in 5 days.

It puts some perspective on the vastness of the universe and our place within it. Even so, we are uniquely valuable.

Google Earth's images of Baghdad captured a battle, and you can see the tanks.

This one gives me an odd feeling. When I retired 10 years ago, I signed an agreement saying that I would never write anything that directly admits that such imagry even exists, much less have anything to say about it.

May 05, 2006

We are about to go shopping for replacement windows. It occurs to me that there are four reasons why replacement windows are like marriage;
- they are expensive
- they are supposed to last for a long time
- you don't know exactly what you're buying, and
- make a wrong choice, and you'll be cold.